Most asylum seekers last year since 2015 refugee crisis

Last year the Netherlands took in the most asylum seekers since the refugee crisis in 2015. Figures from Statistics Netherlands show that in the second half of the year, especially many Syrians came to the country. A large group of asylum seekers from Afghanistan also fled to the Netherlands after the radical Islamic Taliban took power. 

Last year, almost 25,000 people submitted their first asylum application. That is an increase of 80 percent compared to 2020 when few asylum seekers came to the Netherlands due to the many travel restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. More than 10,000 people came to join family members who already have a residency permit in the Netherlands, over 2.5 times more than a year earlier.

Most first asylum applications were made in the last quarter of the year, nearly 9,900. A striking number of people also applied for asylum in the third quarter. 

As in previous years, Syrians formed the largest group of asylum seekers (8,380), followed by people of Afghan (3,005) and Turkish (2,460) nationalities. Most of the family reunification applications involved people reuniting with Syrian refugees.